WordCamp Hamburg a success. Rumors are true. Automatic upgrades coming to WordPress 2.5. $5,000 bounty for tag Plugin offered. Twitter-style Prologue WordPress Theme released. WordPress wins best CMS. WordPress MU updated. And some hot WordPress Plugins have been released and updated!
WordPress News
WordCamp Hamburg: According to attendees and organizers, WordCamp Hamburg was a success. There is an English report by Ian of Letters From Home, with photographs, on day one of the two day event. Done “unconference style”, the conference featured topics on SEO, design, new Plugins, blogs in classrooms, usability, mobile blogging, blog publishing, and more. It also claims to have held the very first ever blog readings where bloggers read stories from their blogs. Congrats to all on a successful WordCamp! You can see photographs of the conference from Merlix’s flickr images and other flickr photos.
Automatic WordPress Upgrade The issue of making WordPress easier to upgrade is back on the front burner again with the discussion, Integrate Automatic Upgrade, on the WordPress trac list. The developers are working hard to get the automatic upgrade feature into the core by WordPress 2.5, though it might be delayed until the next release, and to make it as secure and easy-to-use as possible.
Big Bounty for Tag WordPress Plugin: According to Weblog Tools Collection, Calais is offering USD $5,000 to anyone who can develop a WordPress Plugin for tags with auto-suggestion, semantic tags cloud, and GUID Incorporation within the site feed. Auto-suggestion tag Plugins have been done before without much success and a lot of bandwidth problems, and Christine Davis’ Ultimate Tag Warrior offered some control over the tag’s displayed, so it will be interesting to see if someone can really make this work.
Prologue – Bringing Twitter to the Blog: A lot of news is out about Prologue, a new WordPress Theme from Automattic now on WordPress.com. It incorporates a Twitter-style platform for groups to share short messages via a blog format. It can be public or private and is great for any group or business to communicate with each other, much like Basecamp. The WordPress Theme template will be available as open source, so people can run with it creatively. It was also immediately updated based upon feedback and currently, the front page shows a stream of recent “updates” or comments, one per user, avatars are shown once for sequential posts by the same author, and it works out of the box for WordPress 2.3.2 full versions.
WordPress Wins Again: CMS Wire announces the top 100 CMS according to Technorati’s Top 100 list and says, “we found that WordPress dominates the list, that Movable Type comes in with a respectable second, and the rest are either custom jobbies or a smattering of other platforms which are, relatively speaking, eating dust.” They report WordPress wins by a “whopping 34 percent of the 100 blogs on Technorati’s Top 100 linked-to.”
WordPress Now Requires PHP 4.3: After much debate, WordPress’s hosting requirements have now been upped to PHP 4.3 says Ryan Boren about WordPress 2.5.
WordPressMU 1.3.2 Released: WordPress MU 1.3.2 has been released, a major and mandatory security update that incorporates the fixes in WordPress 2.3.2 and a number of other critical WordPressMU specific security issues.
WordPress 2.5 News: WordPress 2.5, skipping over version 2.4, is scheduled for release in March and will include the new Administration Panels design along with some other great improvements.
WordPress 2.5 Weekly Digest: WordPress weekly digest this week reports work on WordPress 2.4 includes improvements to trackbacks, wp-login.php
, APP implementation for handling updated timestamps better, displaying the right public name for the user/author, caching of post-meta-data, IP address sanitisation, and moving PHP versions for minimum requirements to 4.3. Some steps to integrate the new Administration Panels into WordPress is ongoing with a new Manage > Tags interface and the start of the new multimedia loader, which has been long anticipated.
Mandatory Security Release WordPress 2.3.2: WordPress 2.3.2 has been released and is a mandatory security upgrade. The full details of the update include an urgent security release to fix a vulnerability in draft posts, suppression of some errors messages that may put your database at risk, and other bug fixes. Upgrade to WordPress 2.3.2 now.
The Missing WordPress Plugins Uninstall Feature: Weblog Tools Collection continues covering the WordPress Plugins lack-of-uninstall features in WordPress and offers tips and recommendations from readers and WordPress experts on where to go with this frustrating “lack-of-feature” in WordPress. To get up to speed on the discussion, see Uninstall – Is There Such A Thing?.
Last Week’s WordPress Wednesday News: Last week’s WordPress Wednesday News report covered Happy Birthday WordPress, Automattic Wins and Gets Lots of Money, Security Concerns Over Plugins and Core, WordCamp Hamburg and Hating the Name WordPress.com, if you would like to catch up with the news on WordPress.
WordPress Security News
The latest release of WordPress 2.3.2 is a mandatory security release, fixing some recent vulnerabilities found in WordPress. Upgrade WordPress now.
The most recent news on WordPress security includes:
- Blog Security asks if “WordPress is Insecure by Design?”
- WP-Forum 1.7.4 SQL Injection reports a security issue with WP-Forum WordPress Plugin.
- A reminder: The WP TextLinkAds Plugin has reported as security vulnerability and continues to not be recommended for use.
- Noted web designer, David Airey.com had his blog and email hacked. While WordPress was probably not the issue in this case, some bloggers are getting their WordPress blogs hacked because they continue to not upgrade their version of WordPress. Don’t wait.
- David Kierznowski of BlogSecurity has found a critical vulnerability in TextLinkAds WordPress Plugin and recommends deactivating the Plugin until an update is issued.
- Blog Security reports on a vulnerability in the Democracy WordPress Plugin, the popular polling Plugin.
- BlogSecurity reports on “Defeating Audio Captcha Systems” which explores how the CAPTCHA system does not work, in any form.
To check your blog’s security, try WPIDS – WordPress Intruder Detection System and WP Scanner WordPress Plugin.
WordPress on Your Calendar
WordCamp Hamburg appears to have been a resounding success. The next WordCamp scheduled is WordCamp Dallas on March 29-30, 2008 in Texas. Registration has started and it is expected to sell out fast, so get signed up now. The line-up of speakers is very exciting and includes the top bloggers and experts on WordPress and blogging. Sponsors are still being sought, so if you want your company or blog’s name associated with a hot WordPress conference, get involved.
Here are some WordPress-related dates and events to put on your calendar as found on the WordPress Roadmap and the WordPress Meetup Group Listings (subject to change):
- Utah WordPress Meetup with Matt Mullenweg – February 2, 2008 – details
- The New York City WordPress February Meetup – February 16, 2008
- The Nashville WordPress February Meetup – February 23, 2008
- WordPress 2.5 Release – March 24, 2008
- WordCamp Dallas – March 29, 2008 (Registration Required)
- WordPress Denmark Meetup for WordPress 2.5 at Advice – April 6, 2008
- PodCamp Atlanta 2008 – May 17, 2008
- WordCamp 2008 in San Francisco – July 2008 (waiting confirmation)
Are you involved with a WordPress group or club in your area? Make sure you announce meetings on the WordPress Meetup list and email me so I can add it to the calendar.
WordPress.com News
Prologue Twitter Style WordPress Theme: As mentioned, the new Prologue, a WordPress Theme from Automattic now on WordPress.com, and allows a Twitter-style communications blog.
New To WordPress.com: If you are new to blogging on WordPress.com, check out this basic guide on What Do I Do With My New Wordpress.com Blog?.
WordPress Plugins and Themes News
Image Captions LIVE! I’ve personally been struggling for ages to find a simple and easy way of adding captions to photographs, and now the Image Caption WordPress Plugin does it for you automatically. It automatically uses the title
attribute from your blog post images to create a caption underneath the image. You can customize the CSS styles, too. I’m looking for a per-image option to allow or not allow the caption, as not every image needs a caption, but this is a step in the right direction.
Pages to Posts or Posts to Pages: p2pConverter WordPress Plugin converts static Pages into posts, or posts into Pages within the WordPress Administration Panels. For those who have been using Pages indiscriminately, instead of how they should be used, this is a great Plugin to move those Pages into posts, or vice versa.
WordPress Plugins Working Against Feed Scrapers: Jonathan Bailey of Plagiarism Today recommends two new WordPress Plugins for dealing with feed scrapers: RSS Footer and FeedEntryHeader. Both insert links to your original content within the feed, referencing the source, and allows for a customizable feed statement displayed at the top of the feed rather than the bottom, per your preference.
Bilingual Bloggers WordPress Plugins Updated: Climb to the Stars’ Stephanie Booth updated two WordPress Plugins recently dealing with bilingual blogging. Basic Bilingual helps bloggers blog in different language character sets and Bunny’s Language Linker puts a link to the other localized version of the page you are viewing.
Tracking WordPress Compatibility: It’s often difficult to track what Plugin and Theme is compatible with which WordPress version. In the WordPress Codex are two “master” pages that list all the various compatibilities: WordPress Theme Compatibilities and WordPress Plugin Compatibilities. No matter which version you are using, and in preparation for the next version of WordPress, add these to your WordPress resource list to check before you upgrade.
Guide to WordPress Theme Offerings: Dawud Miracle offers The Ultimate Resource for Free WordPress Themes, a listing of sources for WordPress Themes that appear to be free of hidden and unwanted code and links.
Interesting WordPress Plugins: I’m constantly amazed at how many creative and useful WordPress Plugins are released each week. Aren’t you?
- PostLists WordPress Plugin enables a list of blog posts to be displayed within a Page, post, or Widget with easy-to-use placeholders.
- UnderConstruction WordPress Plugin displays a customizable message on post and Pages explaining that this web page is “under construction” or displays another message to visitors.
- Discover WordPress Widget displays categories, archives, links, and Pages as a tree menu.
- Ravatars WordPress Plugin displays randomly generated avatars for each visitor without their own avatar. Those using Gravatar are not affected. The blogger can create a variety of avatar images that matches their own blog design.
- minibb news WordPress Plugin is a configurable Widget that displays the latest miniBB discussions from your miniBB forums.
Plugin Authors: Take Advantage of the WordPress Plugin Repository: Weblog Tools Collection reports on the WordPress Plugin Repository working in combination with Plugins on the WordPress Plugin Directory, which gives Plugin authors the ability to post and assign bug tickets to their Plugin and have an easier way of reporting and monitoring bug reports.
Get Under the Hood of WordPress: If you are developing a WordPress Plugin and want to get under the hood of WordPress, check out the WordPress Source Code from Taragana. It’s a directory of all the code files of WordPress. Click a file and it opens up in the right window will display the file’s code. Need to check out how WordPress does what it does and find the hooks you need to write WordPress Plugins, add this to your resource list.
Writing to WordPress Standards: If you are developing WordPress Plugins or Themes, your first step is to visit the WordPress Codex, the online manual for WordPress Users, especially the WordPress Coding Standards and Writing a Plugin articles.
Finding WordPress Plugins: For more WordPress Plugins see the official WordPress Plugin Directory, the WordPress Plugins Database, and Weblog Tools Collection Plugin and Theme announcements.
WordPress Techniques and Tips
Here are some featured articles and videos from around the WordPress Community and the WordPress Codex, the online manual for WordPress Users, the source to turn to first for your WordPress help.
NOTE: If you would like your WordPress tip and technique included in this list, see Tips For Writing Good WordPress Tips and Writing and Publishing Code In Your WordPress Blog Posts.
- Managing Plugins
- Urban Giraffe – Translating WordPress into another language
- Edublogs Video – WordPress Presentation and Choosing WordPresss Themes
- Essential Keystrokes – Blog 9-1-1: What To Do When WordPress Breaks
- Nerdaphernalia – Automated Indexes in WordPress Pages
- ZEPREZ WordPress Video Guides – How To Browse Posts In The Manage Posts Admin Section Of WordPress 2.0
WordPress Community News
New Automattic Official WordPress “News” Blog: Automattic, the parent company of WordPress, announced the WordPress Publisher Blog, a magazine style blog promising articles from WordPress developers and the staff of Automattic on how to use WordPress and offering interesting tips and tricks and news.
PhotoMatt Becomes Ma.tt: For those following the lifestyles of the rich and famous founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg has changed his personal blog’s domain name from photomatt.org to Ma.tt. If you have his feed in your feed reader, change it to http://ma.tt/feed/.
Vote for WordPress Ideas: Want your say in the next version of WordPress? The WordPress Ideas section on WordPress is an open forum for you to have your say. Why not take advantage of it and add your voice to the vote.
Found a Bug in WordPress? Report bugs in WordPress properly by following the instructions in Reporting Bugs on the WordPress Codex, the online manual for WordPress Users.
WordPress Podcast: Episode 32: Automattic Rumors, Lorelle Provides WordPress.com News includes an interview with Jonathan Bailey of Plagiarism Today and the Blog Herald discussing copyright issues and content theft, rumors of Automattic’s financial ventures, the WordPress.com Premium Theme Marketplace, and Lorelle joining as a reporter for news on WordPress.com.
WordPress Installed For Free: If you have problems installing the full version of WordPress, visit Installing WordPress for Free (aka Install4Free WordPress). This free, volunteer-driven service is limited to personal blogs only, and they help only with installations, not upgrades.
Using WordPress in Your Blog’s Name: WordPress is a trademark and you are not allowed to use WordPress in your blog’s name or URL unless you have permission of Automattic and WordPress. Also, remember, it’s spelled “WordPress” not “Wordpress”. Oh, and Plugin is Plugin, not plug-in (what you put into a wall electrical socket).
Looking for a WordPress Expert? WordPress Consultants on Automattic is a list of experts you can hire to help you with WordPress Themes, WordPress development, WordPress Plugins, or other WordPress-related expertise. Also see the WordPress Jobs listings, and the WP-Pro mailing list.
If You Are Reading This: If you are reading this blog post NOT on the Blog Herald or from within your feed reader, it is being used against the copyright policy of the copyright owners. Please report it immediately so action may be taken to break some heads and feed scraping blogs.
Even More WordPress News?
Past WordPress Wednesday News Reports
- WordPress Wednesday News: Happy Birthday WordPress, Automattic Wins and Gets Lots of Money, Security Concerns Over Plugins and Core, WordCamp Hambug and Hating the Name WordPress.com
- WordPress Wednesday News: WordPress 2.5 On Track, Uninstalling WordPress Plugins, Premium WordPress Themes Debated, Permalinks, and More WordPress News
- WordPress Wednesday News: WordPress 2.4 is 2.5, Release Delayed, Security Release Issued, WordPress Groups Group, Talking to Plugin Authors, and More
- WordPress Wednesday News: Mandatory WordPress Security Release, Sneak Previews of WordPress 2.4, Hoodies, Vote for WordPress, Moving to WordPress, Custom Fields, and More
WordPress News Sources
- WordPress Planet
- WordPress Development Blog
- WordPress.com Blog
- Weblog Tools Collection
- BloggingPro’s WordPress News and Tips
- The WordPress Podcast
- Lorelle on WordPress
- Planet WordPress from Planet Ozh
Each Wednesday on Blog Herald is WordPress Wednesday, featuring the news around the WordPress Community. If you have a WordPress news item or tip to suggest, please contact me at this special email address: lorelleonwordpress@gmail.com